Visit the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum

Gary Berg-Cross

Robert Green "Bob" Ingersoll, the great, progressive orator of the late 19^th century,  was born August 11, 1833 at 61 Main Street in  Dresden, New York. . That’s 180 years ago this month.  By chance I happened to be in the Dresden area on that August 11th weekend.  Thanks to a timely tip from the Ingersoll Oratory Contest held in June, I knew of the  Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum in Dresden and stopped by to perused the collection of Ingersoll memorabilia and literature.

It gave some time to reflect on the life of this great human being who had so much to say on politics, the arts, science, and the intrusions of religion into these and other aspects of American life.  I was familiar with many of Bob's writings, but less so on the details of his life in the Midwest, his wife and family and some famous people touched by Ingersoll's oratory - Walt Whitman, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison and  Mark Twain. On Ingersoll death of heart failure in July of 1899 at the age of 65 Mark Twain wrote the following to Ingersoll’s niece:

“Except for my daughter’s, I have not grieved for any death as I have grieved for his.”

If you are ever in the Finger Lakes area of NY, I recommend a stop by for a chance to walk with an exceptional mind. There is also a video to see and it is also online.

I learned a bit of the history and effort to save this house as a museum and the story is told in the museum this way:

The house has been restored on three occasions. It was first restored in 1921 by a blue-ribbon committee whose members included Thomas Edison and Edgar Lee Masters. It operated as a community center until the Great Depression. It was restored in 1954 by atheist activist Joseph Lewis, and operated as a museum until the mid-1960s. It was near collapse when it was purchased in 1986 by the Council for Secular Humanism. After raising and spending more than $250,000, the Council rehabilitated the birthplace and in 1993, opened it as a museum. It is open weekends each summer and fall. 

Thank you. Council for Secular Humanism and director of the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum Tom Flynn. Tom, BTW, will the speaker at the WASH MDC chapter meeting Dec. 14^th which will be held at the Rockville library (2-4).

While you are in the area you might organize some of your tine along the Freethought Trail of update NY to peruse as you travel.  This is a collection of locations in West-Central New York such as the Elmira home of Mark Twain,  important to the history of freethought. 

The Freethought Trail website is a project of the Council for Secular Humanism, a nonprofit educational organization based in Amherst, New York and we have (again)  the Council’s Tom Flynn , along with Sally Roesch Wagner of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation to thank for it.

Image Credits

From the museum site and

Photo by Gary Berg-Cross

Evolving Conversations on Belief and Faith Blogs

by Gary Berg-Cross

In an idle moment checking news on my "smart" phone I discovered that CNN online news has not only a Religion section but a Belief blog as part of its news categories (e.g. weather, special coverage, tech, CNN heroes). Do they really have a slogan "The faith angles behind the biggest stories? It seems so.

You can see what they cover, including the Belief Blog's Morning Speed Read for the current day. Groups can also post ads for with church sign photos . Wow, the humanist community has a way to go to compete with this melange. It's perhaps a bit like WAPO coverage on Faith or the faith angle to things including politics. So I learned that Cardinal Timothy Dolan has accepted an invitation to give the closing prayer at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC. I try to think of a future in which there might be humanist parallels used for our large national meetings. We seem a host of Ingersolls away from such a possibility.

Reading the Beief or Faith blog is not the way I would start my day but I was interested to see that Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor, has a blog article called: Bill Nye slams creationism"

As the article noted Nye posted a YouTube video that pointed out - denial of evolution is unique to the United States and that teaching of creationism in schools is undermining children and the future of the United States.

The video quickly has quickly picked up steam and by the time of the CNN article had been viewed more than 1,100,000 times.

There was an interesting angle to the CNN coverage. It was what they called "five schools of reaction that have emerged in comments."

The first was what the blog editor called "a small portion of the population", but which (interestingly) made up about half of their commentators!!! They joined with Nye to cheer him on. I'm in that group..

More article space was given to the other 4 categories which included a "wait a minute" crowd, a "stupid science" crowd (we have faith and don't need to debate science), a "Nye shouldn't comment on us" group and a "CNN is stirring up trouble" group.

The freethinking community and the half of the commentators that responded might open a debate with the first of these groups, but its less likely with the other 3. Nevertheless I applaud the half that joined with Nye and posted on that blog. It was, after all, the plurality of responses even if the editors gave it faint praise in their analysis.


Image Credit
Bill Nye: http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/27/bill-nye-slams-creationism/

Ima

Martin Luther King’s Inspired (Humanist) Life and Thoughts

By Gary Berg-Cross

Today marks the official opening of the MLK monument and it is a suitable time to reflect on the life, work and thought of this great moral, American voice. The Memorial, like the FDR complex, sits astride the Tidal Basin, across from the Jefferson Memorial and near to the Lincoln Memorial. It celebrates another step in our progress from the time of the Founders but also reminds us of these four giant’s unfinished dreams. I know that we’ll never get a Monument, but as Norm Allen and others have pointed out long before Martin Luther King, our Robert Ingersoll uttered similar words:

"I have a dream that this world is growing better and better everyday and every year; that there is more charity, more justice, more love every day. I have a dream that prisons will not always curse the land; that the shadow of the gallows will not always fall upon the earth; that the withered hand of want will not always be stretched out for charity; that finally wisdom will sit in the legislatures, justice in the courts, charity will occupy all the pulpits, and that finally the world will be governed by justice and charity, and by the splendid light of liberty...." (The Works of Ingersoll, (The Dresden Edition), Volume IX, p. 186)

King’s Monument involves both a “mountain of despair” and a “stone of hope” in which MLK’s likeness partially emerges dreamlike. In the context the Occupy movement the moment reminds us of unfulfilled democratic dream and King’ legacy as a polarizing figure in support of inconvenient truths. His has won begrudging support over time while the Occupy movement is still in its early phase. See my blog on the DC Occupy and Occupy the issue of objectives.

We all know that as a Christian King drew ethical inspiration from the Bible, and his speeches are full of these ideas and phrasing. An example is "We are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

But non-believers joy in his Humanist spirit as well. As freethinkers, such as Susan Jacoby, have pointed out, King's moral appeal, while rooted in his own faith, transcended all religions and open to the participation of all. He was highly influenced by Humanists. One of these was the black humanist movement and several black atheist leaders of the late 19th and early 20th century. Norm Allen, in his speech for the Center for Inquiry entitled Martin Luther King, Jr. from a Humanist Perspective, argues that only later did churches provide organizational capacity that nurtured its form of Black activism. Jeff Nallin Remembering the Humanism of Martin Luther King provides several key quotes showing King’s pluralistic & religion-neutral positions. When asked how he felt about the U.S. Supreme Court's decision ruling school prayer unconstitutional his response was:

I endorse it. I think it was correct. Contrary to what many have said, it sought to outlaw neither prayer nor belief in God. In a pluralistic society such as ours, who is to determine what prayer shall be spoken, and by whom? Legally, constitutionally, or otherwise, the state certainly has no such right. I am strongly opposed to the efforts that have been made to nullify the decision.

Another declaration on church-state relations was that the church "is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool."

As a truth seeker King was not hesitant to blame organized religion where it was due, one case being support of violent resolutions:

In a world gone mad with arms buildups, chauvinistic passions, and imperialistic exploitation, the church has either endorsed these activities or remained appallingly silent. During the last two world wars, national churches even functioned as the ready lackeys of the state, sprinkling holy water upon the battleships and joining the mighty armies in singing, "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition." A weary world, pleading desperately for peace, has often found the church morally sanctioning war.

These are not the type of passages that earned a space on the Monument but 14 select passages are
enshrined there. As a humanist I find inspiration in the words and ideas which I find reflected in much of the discussion by the Occupy movement, starting with the idea of ultimate goals of things like Justice and Fairness in a Moral World:

Justice

"True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice." And

"We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."

The Goals of a Moral Society

"We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience."

*********************************************************************

But other values that Secular Humanists might agree with, and sometimes make up topics on this Blog, include:

Generosity Towards and Love of Fellow Humans

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

The Value and Role of Truth & Reality

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

Opposition to War and Militarism

"I oppose the war in Vietnam because I love America. I speak out against it not in anger but with anxiety and sorrow in my heart, and above all with a passionate desire to see our beloved country stand as a moral example of the world."

"It is not enough to say, 'We must not wage war.' It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but on the positive affirmation of peace."

Cosmopolitarianism’s Role in Peace

"If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective." and

"Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies."

Human Rights

"I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits."

The Virtues of Conviction, Fortitude and Thoughtful Action in Support of Inconvenient Truths

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

Project Nim and Primate Think Tanks at the Zoo

The ethics of using Chimps for lab experiments has been in the news this month. Edd Doerr discussed one article in his posting Our Chimp Cousins . A troubling side of using chimps for experiments is shown in the new movie, ‘Project Nim’ by Director James Marsh. Marsh won an Oscar for his 2008 documentary, “Man on Wire” and the new film is based on Elizabeth Hess' 2008 book, "The Chimp Who Would Be Human." You can see a trailer of the movie here.

“Project Nim” recalls how in 1973, a 2-week-old chimpanzee was taken from his mother at an Oklahoma Institute of Primate Studies & sent to Columbia University to be part of a research project designed by Columbia Behaviorist Herbert Terrace. Humorously renamed Nim Chimpsky the animal was subjected to rigid, behavioral training on American Sign Language in an effort disprove linguist Noam Chomsky’s flat assertion that only humans have the cognitive capacity to acquire language. It was a Behavorist attempt to prove Chomsky wrong and not a very humane effort at that. Stephanie LaFarge, one of Terrace’s former graduate students, brought Nim into her mansion home and garden to raise. Human society was swapped for chimp society. To Behavorists this may not pose an issue, but there were many issues. One of many problems is that LaFarge doesn't actually know sign language. Raised by humans without good signing skills in a human setting, the movie documents a research project gone seriously wrong. For one thing Nim grows into a spoiled, diaper-dependent chimp. Education and social conversation is hardly his main concern. When good signers are employed, however, Nim quickly learned 100+ sign symbols. But he was still a needy brat and used signing largely to signal his needs in urgent pleas. One stream of signs read:

“Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you.”

The project was shut down after the main sign teacher left and a grieving Nim attacked the new teacher who hadn’t established a social relationship.

Nim’s later rescue by a primate studies researcher (and Grateful Dead fan), Bob Ingersoll is highlighted in the movie and was the focus of a story in the Washington Post. In contrast to Terrace’s project, Ingersoll took a relaxed approach to interacting with Nim. Instead of life in NYC they had friendly treks through the woods. Some of the interactions are captured in Ingersoll’s home movies from the late 70s as he Nim were getting to know each other in more natural settings. In these social engagements Ingersoll reports anecdotal evidence of intelligence such as Nim creating word combinations that most chimps couldn't. For instance, the infamous joint smoking gesture in the film is:

Stone Smoke Now.

"To me, that's pretty sophisticated," said Ingersoll. "I know it's comical, that he wants to smoke weed, but the reality is that we want to do things that are fun. And to give him a context under which he can ask to do things that are fun, seemed to me to be the right thing to do — if you want to get him to talk to you."

Chimps also have long memories. After Nim moved to a Texas animal sanctuary called Black Beauty Ranch, Nim and Ingersoll were separated for 12 years. But within five minutes of being reunited, Nim clapped his hands which was their own agreed-upon sign language for “Let’s play!”. Nim died of a heart attack in 2000 at age 26, but other chimps have lived longer. More recently, Ingersoll became reacquainted with Mona, whom he hadn’t seen in over 30 years. Ingersoll reports their initial interaction:

“At first she didn’t really recognize me, and I didn’t recognize her. Then I said, ‘Mona, is that you?’ And she immediately signed to me, ‘Bob. Hug hug hug.’ ”

A final word is that we have a great resource in DC to see primates like Nim living in good environments with wiser keepers and modulated experimentation. Our Smithsonian National Zoological Park (aka Zoo) is home to many primates. Orangutans and western lowland gorillas can be found at the Great Ape House. Smaller primates, including golden lion tamarins, Geoffroy's marmosets, and howler monkeys, can be found in the Small Mammal House. And a big treat is to see organgutans travel along the O Line between the Great Ape House and Think Tank on mild days. The zoo says that the time visitors are mostly likely to see these apes traveling on the O Line is between 11 and 11:30 a.m. See http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/ThinkTank/default.cfm for details.

The Think Tank itself is a knockout for me. It is designed as a place to think about thinking, something we call meta-cognition. It is populated with primates doing what comes naturally to them (not Behavorists) in 3 areas: tools, language, and society. We are lucky to have a venue that exhibits a balanced side of primate life with science helping to understand our primate relatives as complex cognitive creatures. Currently, the Zoo has an ongoing research project on orangutan memory and you can watch a researcher testing an orangutan to learn how memories play into orangutan decision-making. All too human and human-like.